Chapter 112

Once again Draco was saved by someone else from an embarrassing fate. Before the cobra could even reach him, Snape who until now just watched the whole "duel", raised his wand and pointed at the snake.

"Vipera Evanesca!"

In the next moment, the cobra vanished and everyone could now breathe. Strange were the minds of those students. Facing a Troll or a horse-sized- spider from the forest they will choose to fight them, but a cobra is akin to the Dark Lord to them.

As soon as the snake disappeared, Draco fell on his ass on the stage, scared to the point of tears. He had never been so terrified in his life, not even when he had faced the summoned creatures or his father, but today, in front of a mere snake, he felt like he had just escaped death by a hair's breadth. Luckily for him, it didn't take him long to recover, and as soon as he looked around, and saw that everyone was staring at him with pity, contempt, or amusement. At the same time, his eyes wandered on Snape, and saw the frowning at him, disappointed by his weakness.

Seeing all of this, Draco felt angered and ashamed, and he wanted nothing more than to get out of there as fast as possible. He scrambled to his feet and ran towards the exit, pushing past anyone who got in his way.

Meanwhile, Thomas who just won the first duel between students, walks down the stage after doing a low bow to the students. As soon as he was with his friends, Ron put his hands on his shoulders and shook him while shouting.

"You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?"

Thomas's first response was to blink at Ron, before he scratched his head, not knowing how to tell them, that despite having Mars and talking with him for so many years, Thomas didn't know all that much about this ability.

"Would you all believe me if I were to say that I don't know too much about this other than the fact that I can speak with snakes?"

Daphne and Hermione were the first to react and compared to the others, they were just curious about this ability.

"When did you learn you can talk with the snakes?" Hermione quickly asked while grabbing Thomas's hand.

"If my memory serves me right, it should be when I learned that I have magical powers."

Hearing that all of those who know what happened that died quiet down and look at the ground not wanting to ask anything more about this topic, only Daphne and Tracey look at them confused as to what happened, but seeing that pained look on Thomas's face, the two Slytherin girls didn't dare to ask anything.

Not wanting to keep this sour mood between him and his friends, Thomas quickly changed the subject to something less painful. "So anyways, I take a lot of people can speak Parseltongue no?"

"Here you are wrong, no they can't," Before Hermione could say anything, Daphne spoke with a smirk on her face when she saw her friend's angry look. "It's not a very common gift in the UK, maybe outside of this community, but not here."

"She's right, you know? This is quite bad for your reputation mate." James added while he and Tracey looked at all of the students who by now turned their heads towards Thomas.

For the first time in a good while, Thomas was confused about what James was talking about. "Why do you think it will be bad? Did I miss something?"

"We all heard you speaking Parseltongue," Adam added while he too noticed the looks the students were now giving Thomas. "Snake language as they call it and while I know for sure you just talk with the cobra to leave you alone, the others don't know that, and for them, you could have been saying anything."

"Does it even matter? I mean we have a ghost with his head barely hanging, Joana from the Hufflepuffs can make things disappear while you are caught in her smile, and so on."

"It matters, Thomas" Hermione quickly added, speaking in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

Thomas frowned as he realized what Hermione was implying. He had no idea that speaking Parseltongue was such a big deal in the wizarding world. Mostly because had always thought it was just a rare and useful skill that he had learned when his magic awakened, but now… it seems that it would bring him more misfortune than luck…

"Wait, are you saying that people will think I'm a descendant of Slytherin or something?" he asked, looking around nervously. He saw that some of the students were whispering to each other, while others were staring at him with curiosity, fear, or contempt. That was worse than even when rumors about him becoming a troll slayer spread around the school.

"Kind of…" Michael gave his friend a forced smile. "And because of that, the whole school might start to believe that you are some kind of a lot of greats descended from him."

"Yet, as you all know, I'm coming from a simple family that until a few years ago didn't even know that this side of the world existed."

"You'll find that hard to prove, Tom," Daphne said to him. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be. Or you couldn't. My words remain, you won't be able to prove them wrong."

Before Thomas or anyone else could any anything, Harry's voice made all of them turn their heads at him. "He's not the only one who can talk with the snakes… I heard everything Thomas said to the snake and what the snake said to him."

As soon as Harry said those words, a wave of shock and disbelief swept through the crowd of students. They all turned their heads at him and started to whisper even more frantically than when Thomas spoke in Parseltongue. The whispers soon turned into murmurs, and then into loud chatter. Some of the students looked at Harry like he was Voldemort himself, mostly because compared to Thomas who a lot of them knew came from a muggle family, Harry came from a prestigious wizardly one.

"Guys, let's just bail out from here." Thoams quickly said when he saw that almost everyone was slowly but surely starting to create rumors.

By the next morning, however, the snow that had begun in the night had turned into a blizzard so thick that the last Herbology lesson of the term was canceled which saddened quite a lot of students who truly loved the subject. Professor Sprout wanted to fit socks and scarves on the Mandrakes, a tricky operation she would entrust to no one else, not even to her best Ravenclaw students who would love to help, but not now when it was so important for the Mandrakes to grow quickly and revive Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey.

But that didn't stop Harry from sulking like a little kid as more and more rumors about him being the heir that opened the chamber of secrets started appearing out of nowhere. Despite the lack of evidence that Harry could talk with the snakes, those rumors still appeared, making his friends, especially Thomas and Daphne think that a certain blonde boy was behind those rumors.

"Malfoy," Thomas muttered under his breath. "It has to be him. He's the only one who would spread such lies about Harry since he knows better than to try anything against me."

Daphne nodded in agreement. "He's always been the jealous type and with how easily you toyed with him, I doubt he will even try to do anything to you. However, … that can't be said for him father…"

They both glared in the direction of the Slytherin table, where Malfoy was sitting with his usual smug expression on his face. At the same time, Harry had enough of the whispers and the stares. He felt like he was being suffocated by the accusations and the distrust and above all, right now, he didn't care if Malfoy was behind it all, he just wanted to get away from it all. And so, before anyone could say or do anything, he suddenly got up from the table and left, ignoring the calls of his friends.

"Harry, wait!" James shouted, following his friend. He knew Harry was upset, but he also knew that he could do something stupid if he let his emotions get the better of him, something that he always does, and would rather not let Harry follow his path. However, despite James running after Harry, he was too late and soon he lost him.

Unfortunately for Harry, James lost him in the maze-like hallways and Harry blundered up the corridor, barely noticing where he was going, he was in such a fury. The result was that he walked into something very large and solid, which knocked him backward onto the floor.

"Oh, hello, Hagrid," Harry said, looking up.

Hagrid's face was entirely hidden by a woolly, snow-covered balaclava, but it couldn't possibly be anyone else, as he filled most of the corridor in his moleskin overcoat. A dead rooster was hanging from one of his massive, gloved hands.

"All righ', Harry?" he said, pulling up the balaclava so he could speak. "Why aren't yeh in class?"

"Canceled," said Harry, getting up. "What're you doing in here?"

Hagrid held up the limp rooster.

"Second one killed this term," he explained. "It's either foxes or a Blood-Suckin' Bugbear, an' I need the headmaster's permission ter put a charm around the hen coop."

He peered more closely at Harry from under his thick, snow-flecked eyebrows.

"Yeh sure yeh're all righ'? Yeh look all hot an' bothered —"

Harry couldn't bring himself to repeat what Ernie and the rest of the Hufflepuffs had been saying about him.

"It's nothing," he said. "I'd better get going, Hagrid, it's Transfiguration next and I've got to pick up my books."

After hearing that, Harry stamped up the stairs and turned along another corridor, which was particularly dark; the torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane. He was halfway down the passage when he tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

He turned to squint at what he'd fallen over and felt as though his stomach had dissolved.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him were another two figures, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.

It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's. And near him stood James, on his feet with the same expression, but compared to the two already "stoned" people, James had his wand in his hand.

Harry got to his feet, his breathing fast and shallow, his heart doing a kind of drumroll against his ribs. He looked wildly up and down the deserted corridor and saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the bodies. The only sounds were the muffled voices of teachers from the classes on either side.

He could run, and no one would ever know he had been there. But he couldn't just leave them lying here… He had to get help. … Would anyone believe he hadn't had anything to do with this?

As he stood there, panicking, a door right next to him opened with a bang. Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.

"Why, it's potty wee Potter!" cackled Peeves, knocking Harry's glasses askew as he bounced past him. "What's Potter up to? Why's Potter lurking …"

Peeves stopped, halfway through a midair somersault. Upside down, he spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs and, before Harry could stop him, screamed, "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

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